Affective experience has been extensively investigated within the phenomenological tradition, often through productive synergies with research on the nature of emotions, subjectivity, sociality, ethics, and aesthetics carried out in analytic philosophy of mind and the cognitive sciences. In both classical and contemporary phenomenology, such an investigation has been closely connected with the exploration of the disturbances of experience characteristic of various forms of psychopathology. In this context, particular attention has been devoted to the experiential alterations which mark depression and schizophrenia, but also other forms of psychiatric illness have been researched, e.g. anxiety, anorexia nervosa, borderline personality disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Within this framework, a plurality of issues have been identified and are currently being discussed. These include the relationship between affective disturbances and disruptions of selfhood and self-consciousness; the distinction between emotions, moods, bodily and existential feelings and the different ways in which they may be altered in psychopathology; the role of self-conscious affects such as shame and guilt in the experience of depressed patients; the connection between affectivity, cognition, and action and the way in which it can be disrupted; affective regulation disturbances; the relationship between affectivity, language, and narrativity and its possible alterations. Aiming to contribute to, and further develop, current debates in this domain, we invite papers from any philosophical perspective addressing the various aspects of the relationship between affective experience and psychopathology.

Contributions may be submitted in English, French, German, or Italian and should not exceed 9,000 words, including abstract, footnotes, and references. All contributions, independently of the language in which they are submitted, should also be accompanied by a 150-250 words abstract in English and include 5 keywords. Submissions should be sent by e-mail to Anna Bortolan (anna.bortolan@ucd.ie) in both Microsoft Word and PDF format. As all contributions will undergo a double-blind peer review process, each submission should consist of two documents: a “Title Page” where the name, affiliation, and contact details of the author will be indicated, and a “Manuscript” file containing an anonymised version of the text. Manuscripts should be prepared following Discipline Filosofiche’s style guidelines (http://www.disciplinefilosofiche.it/en/norme-redazionali/), and should not have been published or be under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Deadline for the submission of manuscripts: February 15th 2018
Publication: November 2018